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UK start-up Inniu is offering to deliver mobile voicemail messages to your email account for free, arguing that voicemail is still an unwelcome monopoly for most mobile operators.

Inniu's system is interesting in that voice messages are delivered direct to your email account; if you retrieve them using their telephone system the messages are retrieved, and marked as read, in your existing IMAP-enabled mailbox. Voicemails are stored in a specific folder, though not one called "VoiceMail", as Google apparently has reserved that particular folder name for its own use.

Not a lot of people change their voicemail service, despite the amount that operators charge for message retrieval. Changing providers isn't difficult, but most alternative services host your messages on their servers, so there's a trust issue.

Inniu obviously needs your IMAP password, but if the company disappears you can at least be confident your messages won't vanish with it.

Like all proper telco 2.0 companies Inniu has no real idea how it's going to make money out of the service, or even what it's going to call it once it gets round to a formal launch some time in September. Still, adverts in the text of the messages would make sense, and the company is considering novelty answerphone messages.

Inniu even invites Register readers to suggest revenue sources, demonstrating just how desperate it is. Anyone interested can sign up to the service and see if they can find a way of making money from it. ®